Bosnia floods create new land-mine risk in Balkans

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Record-high floods and landslides have swept away people, homes and roads in the Balkans over the past week, but in Bosnia another deadly menace is hiding in the flood rubble: land mines.

Authorities have spent two decades trying to unearth the 1 million land mines planted during Bosnia's 1992-95 war. Before the floods, nearly 120,000 remained in 9,416 marked minefields.

Then floods washed away river banks and fueled landslides that have unearthed minefield warning signs and, in many cases, the unexploded booby traps themselves.

Officials at Bosnia's Mine Action Center say their agency will deploy mine-hunting scouts starting Monday and report that mines already are appearing in unexpected places. They fear that some could float all the way to the Black Sea.